


Perchance to Dream

by Elementalist



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, LuffyxNami Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-09
Updated: 2014-09-09
Packaged: 2018-02-16 17:24:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2278320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elementalist/pseuds/Elementalist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Magic AU, set in the decayed city of Varth. Magic warfare has destroyed the city; it has become a blackened husk of its former worth. Nami and Luffy and their small group of friends decide one night that they no longer wish to remain in that barren city. They gather and prepare to leave--to go to a place full of color, adventure, and a bright blue, salt sea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perchance to Dream

He came for her under the cover of midnight, dressed in a vest of ebony fabric that hid him in the dim lighting. The smile on his face, wide and all white teeth, gave him away easily, even with the city lights so far, and Nami spotted him at once as he tried his best to lurk on the opposite side of the window.  
  
Advancing, hands delicate and firm, she raised the pane of glass. With a soft squeak of protest, it obeyed, and Luffy nearly tumbled inside in surprise.  
  
"Whoa!" His hands came out with quick grace; they hit the sill, gripped, stopping the sharp momentum of his body. A laugh popped past that toothy grin. Amusement colored him like dusk. "Hey there, Nami!"  
  
She met his greeting with a question, "What the hell are you doing here?"  
  
His black eyes blinked, flittered around as he examined the room he nearly fell into.  
  
It wasn't much. A bare home with more dust than carpet on the floors. The ceiling rose over them like a new sky, empty of stars but just as bottomlessly black, burnt from some unknown tragedy years ago. _Probably from magic_. Silver webbed its way across the entire place, hard to see, harder to sense, but there still, throbbing like a swollen wound, a present ache that had settled down in the very framework. Nami could feel it, a sweep of gooseflesh that rose along her arms and across the back of her neck.  
  
Outside, the hot, humid air foretold the promise of an oncoming storm.  
  
Inside, the residual magic had fashioned the air into something more chilly. Spell backlash--once too hot, now too cold. . .or something like that. The subtle language of magic wasn't easily understood, and for Nami, whose specialty resided in the weather, it was too complicated to pay much attention to.  
  
 _Robin would know._  
  
But she wasn't there. Nami stood in the room alone, her body dressed in a way to provoke and tease, though in a similar palette to Luffy's garb. Black, with accents of violet. Colors for sneaking. A deflated rutsack sagged between her shoulder blades, empty of the prize she'd hoped to find within this burnt and magicked place. Money. Things to pawn off, or scraps of material--wood, metal, _anything_ to gift to Usopp.  
  
She arched up her fair brows.  
  
And Luffy turned his attention back to her, lifting his shoulders up.   
  
"Looking for you," he told her honestly. He'd swung his feet up at some point, and now perched in the window like a comfortable cat, his knees up with his hands still balanced on the sill beneath him. "Usopp decided we're going tonight."  
  
Nami felt her face collapse in annoyance, frown curving down her lips. " _Did_ he decide? Or _you_?"  
  
Another laugh, one made in a more softer, half-guilty pitch. Luffy rose a hand up to rub at the back of his neck. "Okay," he said. "It was me."  
  
That went without saying.  
  
Huffing, she folded her arms across her chest, cocking out a hip, eyeing him reproachfully. "We can't leave. Not _now_."  
  
"What? Why not?"  
  
She snapped out a hand, waving it around as if there was something to show him, to anchor him to _here_ instead of where he wanted to take them. But this room meant nothing to either of them. It was a husk, carved out by bad magic and painted new with soot and abandonment. "We still need supplies! Isn't that what we all agreed on? You gave us two weeks. It's barely been five days!"  
  
That smile never faltered. It remained persistent: unyielding and too bright to look at.  
  
She felt her irritation slipping into a familiar acceptance.  
  
"Sanji said he's good to go." Luffy rocked back some, seemingly careless of where he was sitting. Nami watched him without worry as he talked on. "Zoro too. They're with Usopp now, at the other side of the city."  
  
"And what about Chopper? Robin? What do they think about this?" She leaned forward, hands dropping to her hips. Luffy mimed the movement, his body arching backwards as hers came forward, more outside than in. "Are they all on board?"  
  
"'Course! They're getting books or something." A slight hesitation as his cheeks puffed, and his mouth fell into a quick frown. "I _think_. They said they'd be there though. So c'mon. We can't keep them waiting!"  
  
Nami rolled her eyes. She felt tempted to push him out of the window, slap her hands against his collarbone to send him reeling back. It passed in a moment, temper failing as quickly as it had sparked to life, and she stood straight again, heaving a sigh.  
  
"Fine," she told him, eyes narrowed as she glanced at him. "Since I know you won't accept a 'no' for an answer."  
  
He snapped back forward. The movement stirred his hair, rustled the straw hat perched on the crown of his head. It brought in a fresh gust of the air outside--through their talking, the pressure had fallen even more. The sky held fat clouds, bowing deeply from the burden of rain. "Great! Come here and we can--"  
  
Quick as a strike, her hand snaked out, stabbing Luffy between the eyes with the blunt tips of her fingers. " _Wait_ a damn minute! My stuff's not here. I have to get it." Luffy's mouth opened in protest. Nami kept on. "I'll meet you back here. Ten minutes, that's all I need."  
  
He groaned. His hand came up, swatting aside Nami's so he could tend to the dull hurt. "Hey! You didn't need to do that.” That pout came back, and Luffy looked twice as betrayed for it. "That really smarts. . ."  
  
"Ten minutes," she told him again, so it'd stick in his brain a little better.  
  
"Ten minutes," Luffy repeated back, hands moving away to press down against his kneecaps. "I'll be here."  
  
At that, he swooned back, body falling from the window frame. The breath of his decent cut through the humidity like a dull blade, nearly silent if not for the flapping arms of his clothing and the soft song of laughter that followed him down.  
  
Nami turned from the window.  
  
Four stories up or not, she knew Luffy would find the bottom safely enough.

* * *

  
  
They crossed the city of Varth like thieves--with silent feet knowing their purpose, bodies weaving past the remnants of the magic-scarred wasteland. Buildings housing no more than blackened windows and the occasional, feeble squatter. Steel framework still standing strong, swept with a fine brush of rust, twisted by the hard grasp of time. They passed numerous shops opened like gasping mouths, their windows in ruin, doors blasted off the hinges, the shelves inside picked clean as bones. Silver glittered through the streets with a telling glow, tattooed down to the very dirt of the place.  
  
Three years before, Varth had been a thriving place, growing, bright with gold, artificial light. Nami remembered the clothing stores she used to frequent with Robin, how they would spend hours trying on fine fabrics cut in tasteful ways. She remembered the numerous restaurants that perfumed the air with smoked scented of expensive, delicious food--she remembered the one Sanji used to work at; she and Luffy would visit him back in the scrubbed-clean kitchens to watch him cook, often getting plenty of samples slipped their way on plates with glided trims. There had been hospitals and schools fit to go to, established places that cared more to help people than to swindle them out of their hard-earned coin.  
  
There had been a reason to stay.  
  
Back then, there had been the music of easy laughter.   
  
Now. . .  
  
Everything had snapped into the heart of the city. The people condensed into an overpopulated mass, squeezed themselves in apartments with staggeringly high rents, and slaved for the spare change to pay for them. As far as Nami knew, they had no true life inside those gated, 'privileged' walls. The people living inside worked and worked and had no chance to live. No freedom.  
  
As the two of them walked, hurried in stride, she took a final look at the dark, dank place that had been as familiar as home to her--to all of them.  
  
Maybe it was best they were leaving tonight instead of weeks from now. She saw no point to stay anymore either. Nothing remained but her friends, and they all, she knew, felt no desire to linger in this war-zone.  
  
Magic had its uses, yes. It thrummed in all their blood, along each cell and platelet. But somehow, somewhere along the way, someone had stupid ideas of power, or how to make Varth an even brighter star. And it failed. Blew up and killed so many people. Fights broke out. People started slaughtering one another with their magic.  
  
The city turned silver.  
  
Then black.  
  
Then deserted as those who survived fled to the golden center, where it remained untouched by battle and corruption.  
  
It would only be a matter of time before it blackened like the rest of the city.  
  
And Varth would be nothing more than a heavy scar on the land, a blot of ruin on the landscape, a broken city by the black sea, a lesson for the rest of the world to not be so damn stupid.  
  


* * *

  
  
Where they ended up was not where Nami expected.  
  
Luffy pulled her into a warehouse, through a door that only just covered the threshold, propped there by someone who came before them. Neither stopped to put it back up. Nami felt like she should, but with Luffy's hand wrapped around her own, she had no chance to stop and do it, and had little choice but to follow where he led.  
  
The dark belly of the space ate them up, filled her nose with the muted smell of abandonment. Mildew made their fast steps a slippery hazard. Dust churned in the air, stirred at their arrival, tickling and burning each sharp breath Nami took.  
  
Her feet found a few scattershot puddles. They coughed up a disgusting wetness that seeped into the toes of her boots, gave off the rank smell of old water. She wrinkled her nose, had the sense not to say anything, however many complaints leapt to her tongue the further they ventured in.  
  
It didn't matter, anyway.  
  
In a few minutes, they crossed the empty floor, and Nami found herself lead through another door. Warm, yellow light splashed over her, embraced her like an old friend. This time, the door fell shut behind them, and almost regrettably after, Luffy let go of her hand.  
  
"Heeeeey!" His voice filled the room, bouncing off the metal ceiling and concrete floors like wads of rubber. "We're here!"  
  
Familiar faces turned to look at them, and the room filled with more than just light--it brightened with smiles and the soft song of greeting.  
  
They were all there, Nami was pleased to see.   
  
Zoro had propped himself against a wall, his arms folded protectively over his single, prized katana. His eyes flashed open at Luffy's call, and his smile came quick to his lips, though briefly lived. Robin stood near him, hands flipping the delicate pages of an old book. She glanced up at them, snapping the book shut. "Glad to see you're safe," she said, in place of 'hello'.  
  
Further in--Nami felt a dizzying sense of how deep the room was, double its width, it not more--Sanji rose up from where he had been squatting, his hand lifting up in a partially-formed salute. Half of a cigarette perched on his lip. Nami could scent the smoke coiling up from it, and she welcomed it to the stink of the previous room.  
  
Chopper ran up to hug her leg, his fur soft against her skin. She knelt to pat the top of his head, glad to see him, and she told him as much as Luffy left her side, venturing to the left-most wall. Nami followed him with her eyes--and in her surprise, she stood suddenly, nearly gasping.  
  
The entire concrete wall had been transformed, paint still glistening. She saw the bluest sky arched overhead, streaked with oncoming dusk, tiny flecks of starlight placed among the shifted hues. Numerous islands were settled on a green-blue sea, plants and life lovingly housed on each one, every one different. Some held the promise of jungles or mountains; on others, delicately painted blue-gray ruins stood tall and true, alive with history. Nami counted more than one glittering, clear-watered pond on a few. One island showed a land of yellow-gold sand with a kingdom of precious sandstone at its center. Amongst the painted sea, it stood out loud as a sun.  
  
And on this sea, with its gentle waves and striking color, sailed a small, comfortable looking ship. It's sails were snapped full from a tailwind. A black flag, blank, waved from a post. A silly-looking ram, soft-curved horns and all, smiled from its place at the head of the ship.   
  
She saw, too, the unmistakable green-and-orange of precious tangerine trees.  
  
"I know, I know. No need to say it--Usopp, you're a fantastic artist--one of the greats!--and this is, by far, the greatest masterpiece to ever have been created!"   
  
Dark-skin marked with splashes of color--that Caribbean blue, the orange of ripe fruit--Usopp stepped forward, a brush in his hand, a wide, satisfied grin on his face. A bit of brown paint was smudged on one of his cheeks, and Nami swore that, when he came closer, he brought the smells of wet dirt and fresh rain.  
  
Luffy stood in front of the painting, eyes wide and bright as stars. "It's _AMAZING_!"  
  
That wasn't the right word for it. Nami's glance danced around the entirety of it, soaked up all the details, but could not find the words to explain just how truly and deeply beautiful she found it all to be.   
  
So she asked instead, "This is where we're going?"  
  
The tangerine trees at the back of the ship foretold the answer long before Luffy's sharp, excited, " _Yes_! It's perfect!"  
  
"Wait!" Usopp brandished his brush, flicking paint across Luffy's dark clothing. Blue stood out in tiny pearls that slipped away moments later like fresh rainfall. Luffy absently rubbed his hand against the spreading wet patch, his face quizzical.   
  
With his brush, Usopp pointed at the barren flag. "We still need a Jolly Rodger, idiot, or it won't be complete!" He huffed, then tossed a question over his shoulder, to Sanji. "Fetch my sketchbook, would you? I drew up some we could might use."  
  
In a moment, Sanji came to them, already flipping through the pages. Usopp gave him an irritated look and snapped his hands out to take it, ignoring the smoke-tinged chuckle that slipped past Sanji's lips. "What?" he said in an easy way, his attention turning to the grand mural on the wall. "It was only a peek."  
  
But Usopp, quickly flipping through the pages of his sketchbook, didn't answer. And when he found the right page, he opened it towards Luffy and Nami, so the both of them could see. Most of skull-and-crossbones were fashioned after the artist, that was easy to tell. The slingshots, the replica of his favorite hat. Luffy gave him a scowl.  
  
" _I'm_ going to be captain. It needs a straw hat or something!"  
  
Usopp sighed and turned the page again, muttering, "I figured you say that. But, just know, I would make a _fantastic_ captain! I'm already a great warrior! I could be one of the sea too!"   
  
The new page showed more Jolly Rodgers, and one of them caught Luffy's attention immediately. He pointed at it, grinned wide, and that was that. With a resigned look, Usopp went to work adding it to the flag. He spoke as he painted, "So, what? What's our name going to be? The _Strawhats_?"  
  
Nami liked the ring.  
  
And Luffy liked it better. "Yeah!" He grinned at everyone in the room--from Zoro watching them all idly from his spot on the floor to Sanji who turned to look at him and finally, lastly to Nami, on which that smile lingered for several long moments. "What do you guys think?"  
  
Chopper was the first to say anything. He bounced up, all mirth and cheer. "I wanna be a Strawhat!"  
  
Robin chuckled. Zoro muttered an affirmation, something close to, "Well, it's your ship, your decision." Sanji shook his head, but his mouth gave away into a soft smile that told them all what he really thought. Usopp muttered to his paint, but his words were teasing and light, and they all knew he took it as a small honor to have sparked the idea.  
  
At last, Luffy looked at Nami, leaned in, hands on his hips, copying her earlier stance. "You like it too, right?"  
  
She gave him a long look, mostly for her benefit, before leaning in and flicking the old hat sitting on his hair. "It certainly fits--"  
  
His hand came up, caught her wrist, and he laughed, joy surging out of him like the promise of sunlight. Nami found herself glowing because of it, her bones warming under that private attention, and she twisted her hand away to grasp at his fingers instead, eyes bright, mouth hitched up. "-- _Captain_."   
  
"It's settled then!" He turned to the rest of the room, his hand still holding Nami's, like he had forgotten about letting it go. Or maybe he didn't want to. Maybe that was the point. "From now on we're the Strawhat pirates!"  
  
A soft cheer went up--everyone joined in aside from Robin, who just smiled encouragingly at the ruckus the rest of them made.   
  
"Good thing then, because I already painted the Jolly Rodger on the flag!" Usopp stood back, gestured widely at the finished piece, a bow more than anything. The Jolly Rodger sat on the black field, slightly folded from the imagined wind, somehow nostalgic and oddly familiar. "It's ready now! Who's ready to go to sea!"  
  
They all were. It read in their happy faces, in the way their bodies seemed to pull towards the picture.  As one, they began to gather their things--the heavy bags full to bursting with all their wares. Clothes, precious items like pictures and hand-me-down trinkets. Food, too, and a handful of endeared pots and pans and a beloved knife set. Chopper and Robin both had numerous books, stored together in a shared trunk. Each had a bag or two, little more, but to them, those small bags held their worlds.   
  
At last, Usopp, who by far had the most on his back--more canvas bag than man as he stood in front of the painted green sea. "Okay, is everyone ready?"  
  
Excitement buzzed around, loud as bees during the summers of their childhoods. It quivered in the air like magic, alive and profound.  
  
Usopp turned, reached out, and touched the painting with his hand. Silver rippled along it the instant his fingers struck that sticky paint; the spicy scent of magic hit them, and the wall started to shudder.  
  
Slowly, he withdrew. It looked the same, this promised sea and this tiny ship with its gusting sails and swaying tangerine trees. The same, but laced through with heavy silver. It glittered and shimmered and somewhere, from deep within, the soft sighs of ocean waves managed to slip through.  
  
Luffy stepped up when Usopp stood back. He looked at once to all of them, his tiny, patchwork crew, waiting on him to lead them to a new life. A place where the world wasn't dark and full of fighting and death, but one of adventure and blue skies and the endless sea. A new place to call 'home’.  
  
He held out his hand, and Nami strode forward to take it, knowing without being asked what he wanted.  
  
The smile she got was worth more than anything she had ever possessed.  
  
One by one, they all strode up to the wall. Zoro came to Luffy's right, and Luffy reached to take his hand. Usopp came next, with paint splattered fingers, and grabbed Zoro's free hand before he could protest. Sanji took Usopp's, and Chopper stood beside him, hoof folded protectly within Sanji's grasp. Robin came to Nami, and with a polite smile, they linked their fingers together.  
  
They stood as one.  
  
"Alright!!" His shout boomed, rolled out like thunder. It pressed down on the lot of them, filled their ears with anticipation and their hearts with promise. "Time to set sail!"  
  
He leapt.   
  
They _all_ leapt.  
  
There was no guarantee this would be how they all imagined it to be. The magic was threaded strongly within, each stroke carefully placed, each color and line--but magic was fickle and it did not love as people could love. It could turn in an instant. Take some of them, but leave others. Or it could not work at all, and they would be left with a mural of a sea they would never explore.  
  
But Luffy held his faith that it would.  
  
His body hit the picture.  
  
It swallowed him up, gentle as water.  
  
Nami, her hand never leaving his, slipped in right after, into a new world alive with color and adventure and the striking scent of a bright blue, salt sea.


End file.
